Institutional Inequality in the Publishing of Economics Papers, 1970-74.

This article looks into the institutional inequality in the publishing of journals related to economics, in the U.S. Most frequently, institutional affiliation of authors has been discussed in light of faculty ratings, with limited concern expressed for the overall institutional concentration of authors. Rankings of institutions in the sample of specialty journals exhibited great instability. Four of the top seven institutions on the 1960s list do not even appear on the 1970-74 tally. The number of new entrants to the list is similarly striking. The instability is to be expected because of the sampling procedure. The equivalent of one volume of each issue of thirteen journals made up the sample. From time to time concern is expressed over the relative concentration of articles written by individuals affiliated with a relatively few institutions. During 1960-69 to 1970-74, the share of the top four contributing institutions declined for each journal except the "Quarterly Journal of Economics." A possible reason for this change in the distribution of contributors is the slackening labor market for academic economist.